The Conservatives see reforming the tax system for the self-employed as a vote winner and are planning to reform the tax system so that it no longer assumes the self-employed are 'on the fiddle', according to a national newspaper.

An article in the Sunday Telegraph says that one radical option being considered is to allow the 600,000 people who sell their services through 'one man' companies to opt out of employment. It says that instead of paying 11 per cent Class 1 National Insurance Contributions (NICS) on their income they would pay the £2.40 a week due under Class 2 NICs, which is paid by the self-employed.

Mark Prisk, the shadow business minister, said the tax system struggled to cope with people working outside of traditional employment and he singled out the Government's IR35 legislation as particularly unfair.

He said: "The current government has treated the self-employed disgracefully. More often than not they have treated them as if they are on the fiddle, which is wholly unacceptable. We want to reform the system."

The Conservatives have repeatedly stopped short of committing to abolishing IR35, but have said that they will examine it as part of a wider plansa to reform small business taxation. Mark Prisk, himself a former freealncer, has been a supporter of small businesses and the freelancer community for a number of years.